Georgia-Florida
Saturday, Nov. 1
3:30 p.m. Eastern, 12:30 p.m. Pacific
ABC
Georgia-Florida isn’t one of one in college football, but it’s close. This game and Texas-Oklahoma are the two main power conference rivalries in which the game is held at a neutral site every year and the stadium is split into halves. This game is part of the color and originality of the sport. Even when one or both teams aren’t great, the game still matters and carries enormous emotional significance for everyone involved.
The Georgia Bulldogs might not be a great team, but they are a good team. They have managed to sidestep a number of landmines, notably Tennessee and Ole Miss, and are still on course to make the College Football Playoff. Georgia is not dominant, but it remains successful and formidable. The Dawgs have made it known that they are a tough out in the SEC. It will require a strong, steady effort to beat them.
Georgia-Florida has often been volatile
Kirby Smart has to keep his team focused and grounded
Kirby Smart has been down this road many times. Georgia knows it will get a fierce and robust challenge from Florida. No one questions that Georgia is the better team, but even when the better team wins in this rivalry, it usually gets pushed. Georgia was ascendant in this rivalry in the 1970s and 1980s under Vince Dooley, but the games were often close, as shown in the epic 1980 game regarded by many as the best game in the history of the series (“Run, Lindsay, Run!). Florida dominated in the 1990s under Steve Spurrier but still needed to sweat out some of its many victories in that particular decade. The better team usually wins, but covering the spread is a different matter.
Georgia Bulldogs-Florida Gators Odds
Hear TJ Rives and Jason Powers break down this game on the 3Dog Thursday Podcast by clicking Play below:
Spread: Georgia -7.5 (-105), Florida +7.5 (-115)
Total: 50.5 (Over -110, Under -110)
Underdog moneyline: Florida +220
This Georgia-Florida game is hard to pin down from a betting standpoint because it’s really hard to know with confidence that Florida will play at a given standard. The Gators enter this game having fired head coach Billy Napier. This is the first game for the interim staff. It’s true that the staff has had two weeks to prepare, but it’s still an interim head coaching situation, and it’s hard to know what kind of quality one will get from an unknown head coach without a proven track record in that position.
If we accept the idea that Florida’s coach will be roughly the same as Napier — not conspicuously better or worse, and relatively close to what we have seen — this game should end up close to the spread of 7.5 points. Georgia is better, but Florida puts up a fight. The Gators are flawed but resilient. Even when they were struggling under Napier, they put forth good effort on a regular basis and did not quit on their coaches. That should continue here and create a game which feels too hot to handle for bettors, at least from a pregame standpoint.
One should watch the first quarter and then consider a live in-game play if it becomes clear that Florida will be a lot better or worse than pregame expectations might suggest.